Large Turnout at Two-Day OPEN CAMPUS

Lectures, laboratory visits, and open-air concerts: from June 23 to 24, the University of Bremen's OPEN CAMPUS proved to be a huge success with around 20,000 guests. Top stage act was Gentleman and on Friday evening, rapper MAJAN, among others, created a party atmosphere in the campus park.

This year, for the first time, OPEN CAMPUS began on Friday evening with a stage program and open-air concerts. The stars MAJAN, iL Civetto, and Pantha, as well as DJs heated up the atmosphere.
Starting at noon on Saturday, OPEN CAMPUS offered a look behind the scenes of the vast teaching and research institute with a full program of lectures, guided tours, and a poetry slam. Under the motto "Open worlds – share knowledge," numerous members of the university as well as countless helpers were on hand to make this year's OPEN CAMPUS a successful event.
The interest was high right from the opening: Numerous visitors came to the campus park from 12 p.m. onwards to find out about studying, research, training, work, and the diverse international life of the university in the more than 30 pavilions.

Great Interest in Research, Lectures, Guided Tours

The numerous guided tours, lectures, and workshops for children were almost all fully booked. Those interested were able to listen to lectures on artificial intelligence, visit the ZARM Drop Tower as well as scientific laboratories, be guided through the Mensa cafeteria, or marvel at a dinosaur bone displayed in the Geosciences Collection.
Those interested in new languages had the opportunity to take part in a short introductory language course in Korean. In discussion sessions entitled "Ask me anything," guests had the chance to ask scientists directly about their fields of expertise and to exchange ideas with them, for example.

Additionally, there was a great stage program in the evening with a poetry slam, concerts, and DJ live sets.

In particular, Gentleman's performance wowed the audience and created a festival feeling in the campus park. During the day, there was also plenty of fun and lots to discover for the little ones at the Children's Campus.
"I am very happy about such a high level of interest," said University President Professor Jutta Günther. "OPEN CAMPUS is a great opportunity to show visitors how diverse and exciting our university is, which is, after all, the university of all the people of Bremen. There were many exciting opportunities for interaction. I would like to thank all staff and students for their great commitment."

Communicating Research in an Exciting Way

Anyone who has always wanted to know why humankind would want to fly to Mars and why this is not at all out of the question was able to ask Professor Marc Avila directly at the "Humans on Mars" initiative stand. "Visitors are very interested in this," explained the scientist. "And a lot of interesting questions can be answered in direct conversation."
In front of the MZH Building, an autonomous vehicle generated a lot of interest. Xibo Li from the Center for Industrial Mathematics explained to the many curious visitors how the car works and how a screen can be used to track how the car avoids traffic obstacles on the road. "People are very interested in the topic of automated driving and how far research has come," the research assistant pointed out. "It's fun to explain."
The staff at the Centre for Teacher Education and Educational Research (ZfLB) were also very pleased: "We had a lot of prospective students here who asked detailed questions about teacher education," Dr. Marion Brüggemann, managing director of the ZfLB, told us.

The program for children was once more a hit – from a bouncy castle to face painting and a math rally. "It's really great what the University of Bremen offers for children," said a delighted father who was exploring OPEN CAMPUS with his daughter. The young girl had just "dug up" real fossils at the Geosciences Collection's pavilion and then went on to check out the Children's Campus.

Thanks to Sponsors and Supporters

OPEN CAMPUS is also made possible by numerous sponsors. This year, these included Sparkasse Bremen, AOK Bremen/Bremerhaven, Anheuser-Busch InBev Deutschland GmbH & Co.KG, BLG LOGISTICS GROUP AG & Co. KG, Bauck GmbH, Wirtschaftsförderung Bremen, University of Bremen Alumni Network, the University of Bremen Foundation, Unifreunde, Hotel Landgut Horn, the Student Services Organisation Bremen, and the Wolfgang Ritter Foundation Bremen.
OPEN CAMPUS was supported by the media partners Bremen Vier, Bremen Next, and WESER KURIER.